Assyrian genocide

The Assyrian Genocide was a genocide by the Ottoman Empire, in which over 300,000 Assyrians were killed during raids and massacres.

The name goven to this is the "Sayfo" which is the Aramaic word for sword. Many Assyrians were considered unpure by the Turks and were massacred for not submitting their Christian identity. Assyrians lost their homes and possessions to the Sultan-Adulhamed the Red and even before the genocide—they were persecuted and forced to pay high taxes.

Since ancient times and conquest by the Babylonian, the Assyrians have not have had their own nation. It was called a diaspora and they have spread over to many different countries. Under the Arabs and Turks, they were oppressed and assimilated to society and many lost their independence. Those that survive continue to have a common unity especially in their deep Christian faith.

"One day the Moslems assembled all the children of from six to fifteen years and carried them off to the headquarters of the police. There they led the poor little things to the top of a mountain known as Ras-el Hadjar and cut their throats one by one, throwing their bodies into an abyss." [1]

Map showing the Armenian (in colours) and Christian (in shadings) population of the eastern Ottoman provinces in the year 1896. In the areas where the share of Christian population was higher than that of the Armenians, the non-Armenian Christian population largely consisted of Assyrians (except in regions inhabited by Ottoman Greeks). Assyrians lived mostly in the southern and southeastern parts of the region

The Assyrian Genocide took place in the same context and time-period as the Armenian and Greek genocides.[8] But unlike these, no official national or international recognition of the Assyrian genocide has been made, and many accounts discuss the Assyrian genocide as a part of the larger events subsumed under the Armenian genocide.[9]